Month: February 2026

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The ever changing explanations for Donald Trump’s release of a racist video regarding the Obamas is a bit mystifying, at least, in regards to it being helpful in understanding what actually happened. I don’t think they really matter anymore because none of them give a good impression of the Trump White House.

First the idea that someone in the White House, up to and including the President, didn’t understand that depicting the Obamas as apes was racist is just a bit more bull shit than even some of Trump’s fellow Republicans are willing to swallow. But, say I am going to let you off the hook for being racist, it doesn’t let you off the hook for being ignorant of a common racist portrayal.

Is this really how you want to frame your mistake? Trump was using the Lion King characters as a funny way to express an opinion and had no racist intentions whatsoever. Well, then, why didn’t you know this? Since this history is common knowledge, is it really a good idea to have you managing the very country that has this complicated history? What stupid mistake are you going to make next because of your ignorance? It is hardly a reassuring answer.

Oh, then Trump says he didn’t watch the whole video so he missed the part where the Obamas were depicted as apes. Well, again, why not? If something is going out with your name associated with, it might be a good idea to watch the whole video. The video wasn’t that long — a full viewing by the man in charge could have prevented this embarrassing mistake. So we have gone from ignorant of a long standing racial stereotype to my team made a mistake because I couldn’t be bothered watching the whole video but I gave my approval any way even though I didn’t really know what was on the video.

Then there is the lack of an apology. If this was genuinely an honest error, what is the problem with saying you are sorry. Trump now claims he didn’t make a mistake, someone else did because he didn’t know about the Obamas as ape section of the video. That isn’t an excuse and failing to watch the whole video is indeed a mistake. He signed off on something that he had not thoroughly vetted.

It is mistake and he needs to say he is sorry. Is it really that difficult. I am sorry and I will try to do better next time. If this was an honest error then put it behind you already. Even if you aren’t genuinely sorry. An insincere apology is better than no apology. But no, Trump refuses to apologize because he, apparently, doesn’t make mistakes. Which, I might add, is also a troubling Trump characteristic.

This leads me to believe Trump simply doesn’t care that people think he is racist. Or stupid. Or incompetent. He thinks he should be able to say whatever he wants and if people don’t like it, tough shit. Just a reminder, he is the president of the United States something he has failed to understand since taking office. Don on a barstool in the local tavern can say anything he wants. The president of the United States has to think carefully before he opens his trap and, understandably, any person who is under such public scrutiny is going to slip occasionally, when you do, all you have to do is have the grace to say I am sorry.

So, to recap, the best case scenario here, is that we have an idiot as president who is unaware of the history of the country he leads, says whatever ill-thought out words come to his mind and isn’t going to apologize even after his mistakes are pointed out to him. The worst case is we have a racist who enjoys displaying his racism even when it is unnecessary and counter-productive to what he is trying to do. The truth probably lies somewhere in between but none of them really encourage me that Trump is worthy or up to the job that he holds.

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Occasionally, after writing a post, I have this wait a minute moment. I realize that I didn’t quite write what I wanted to say. This happened to me last night after I posted regarding the Epstein Files. I realized I wanted to emphasize a point more strongly than I did.

What is bothering me here is that the Biden Justice Department sat on these files for 4 years. The pressure for releasing these files came from MAGA and Donald Trump. Trump is rarely held accountable by his supporters, latched on to the issue during the 2024 campaign because it was useful then, probably thinking that once he took office he could forget any he promises he made about the files. MAGA deserves a little credit for holding him to his promise because some MAGA members continued to campaign for their release even after Trump tried to bury them again. Democrats joined the bandwagon because Trump was president now and the files could be used as a cudgel to use against him. They were counting on maximum embarrassment to Trump and the Republicans.

Unfortunately the files uncovered a much more insidious problem — a lot of political and business elites think it is ok for themselves to enjoy sexual relations with trafficked women and girls and they expect other people in the elite club to look the other way and protect them if they get caught. Sadly, it looks like they might get away with it.

Given the heavily redacted documents which prevents further investigation from people outside of the Department of Justice and Todd Blanche’s opposition to further prosecution, it looks like the most these men will endure is a little embarrassment and perhaps a job loss here and there. Not much, I would say for participating in a global sex trafficking ring. But we can’t have VIP’s being embarrassed, now can we?

What has me roiled here is that Joe Biden could have released these documents while he was president. Prior to Trump’s second inauguration, I don’t recall many Democrats all that enthused about their release. Biden’s Justice Department could have redacted the documents instead of Trump’s. But, for some reason, nothing happened. Oh, right they were protecting the poor women who were abused by Epstein and Maxwell. I thought that was the purpose of redacting the documents — protecting the victims. So, that particular excuse simply doesn’t hold water. So why did they sit on these documents and do absolutely nothing for 4 years? Protecting rich powerful men from prosecution is the only thing I can com up with.

This leads me back to the conclusion — Trump is not the problem. He is a symptom of a greater problem — a system that clearly is broken and no plausible way to fix it. Sigh.

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Every so once in awhile I realize that Donald Trump is a diversion from the real problem. The latest release of Epstein File documents made me focus again on the bigger issue here — the rich and powerful are misbehaving and getting away with it and have absolutely no interest in changing things.

This is apparent because after 20 years of investigations into Epstein, only two people have been convicted of any crime — Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Pretty strange, don’t you think? If you have sexual trafficking going on, there are sellers (Epstein and Maxwell) of the girls and then there are buyers of the girls. The buyers have managed to skirt the justice system so far. Why?

The government is sitting on reams of evidence naming potential customers. None of them, except ex-Prince Andrew, who, poor thing has been stripped of his title, has had any reckoning with the law. It is more than a little telling and also disappointing that four different presidential administrations have gone by since Epstein’s first crimes were discovered, with more and more evidence accumulating with each year and the Department of Justice does nothing to pursue Epstein’s johns. This will change now that the evidence has been released, right?

Apparently no. Todd Blanche, Deputy Attorney General, says they don’t have any evidence that these gentlemen committed any crimes. Yes, they did socialize with known sex traffickers but that is not a crime. Blanche says this in such a way that suggests if he had some evidence to pursue these men he surely would. Right. They may not have admitted to anything but, Jesus Christ, he has names of people who might have information or, worse still, have committed crimes.

Dragging them into the police station for a few questions seems called for particularly from an administration that has no trouble blowing drug trafficking suspects out of the water without a trial. Hmm. Makes you think doesn’t it. What is the difference between a suspected Venezuelan drug dealer and a suspected Epstein party goer? Let me think.

But these rich powerful men, these best and brightest didn’t know what Epstein is up to. You can’t blame them for not seeing what was going on. They just came for a little R and R. It is possible these men coming to a secluded island with a bevy of adolescent girls didn’t know what was up. It is possible but highly unlikely. One of the more eyebrow raising effects of the released Epstein files is to witness these rich and powerful men squirming awkwardly about their culpability. They just didn’t know what old Jeff was up to.

Does anyone honestly believe that? Given that many of these men have teenage daughters of their own, the idea that they can’t eyeball a girl and gauge her age seems a bit, oh I don’t know, unbelievable. More importantly, if they are too god damn stupid to see what Epstein was doing, should they really be trusted with such important jobs. So to put in bluntly they are either liars and therefore unworthy of their position or stupid which makes them even more unworthy of their position.

The whole Epstein fiasco points to a much bigger problem than just Trump. Biden’s Justice department wasn’t doing anything with the information either and probably for the exact same reason that Trump initially didn’t want to release the files — they were protecting important men from, at the bare minimum, embarrassment and, at the worst, prosecution for sex with minors. This suggests that the system is rotten to the core. Trump going into retirement won’t change that.

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Spoiler Alerts: Don’t read further if you plan to read The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree.

My book club was reading a book called The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree by India Hayford. Hayford is a good writer and it was an engaging enough story but John Calvin, the villain, irritated me. He might as well been twirling his mustache every time he appears in the book just so you remembered he was the bad guy. He was just evil. Bad to the bone, a bully that nobody likes but everyone kowtows too. It also makes the more dubious actions of the heroes a lot easier to stomach. You can do anything to stop evil after all, right?

That is precisely the problem though. It drains the story of any moral ambiguity. Should she or shouldn’t she isn’t the question.We are rooting for Genevieve, the heroine, to do whatever she has to do to stop the dastardly John Calvin. The reader gives her the license to kill because they hate her nemesis. But shouldn’t murder give one pause. Is this the only way the villain can be stopped?

I think in this case, maybe another method could have worked. When your whole family hates you and you are raping your own daughters, I would think revealing the monster might have worked just as well. But no, John Calvin is too evil. He deserves death. Oddly enough, Hayford pulls her punch at the end because Genevieve isn’t the one to exact revenge on John Calvin, it is another character which may give the book a bit more mystery but, again, it is distracting. The book’s lead character is Genevieve. Her trials and tribulations are the main focus. The reader knows the most about her life and her motivations — yet she turns over the satisfaction of killing John Calvin to someone else.

So, even though John Calvin is evil and deserves to die, Genevieve is too good to kill him. So all of Genevieve’s rather sparse moral dilemma about killing John Calvin is for naught as she ultimately doesn’t have to pull the trigger or, in this case, release the snakes. It is strangely unsatisfying and disappointing ending for a readable and page turning book.

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There is this horror movie trope where someone hears a noise and then goes to investigates. At this point, everyone watching the movie knows that investigating the noise is a big mistake, mostly because the background music is building the suspense so the audience knows this isn’t going to end well. When I am watching these movies, I think why is this person so stupid. Everyone knows you shouldn’t investigate the noise in the basement. Particularly if it is late at night and no one else is at home. Come on.

Well, you would think I would be more careful when I heard a noise the other night. It was coming from outside. Without a second thought, I went out to the porch to investigate. Fortunately for me, it was nothing to worry about. It did, however, get me thinking, absent the suspense building music, I, without giving it a second thought, checked on the noise outside.

You think, after a lifetime of witnessing the worst in movies, I would know better by now. But clearly I am just the horror show victim waiting for the monster to leap out and get me. It is kind of embarrassing.

So my apologies to all the characters who I screamed at for being so stupid. I am deeply deeply sorry.

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Hear me out on this one. This might take a minute.

I never got Ronald Reagan. His charm eluded me but a comfortable majority of the country disagreed. They loved him which allowed him to change the American political environment. The free market/small government ideas he espoused still dominate the political debate nearly 40 years after he left office. If you don’t believe me, try raising taxes anywhere in the United States and the overwhelming response will be no. Americans prefer potholes to good public services.

Reagan had a nice guy personality that connected easily with the public and is completely different from our current president. Criticism rolled right off Reagan’s back and he worked with his political opponents whenever possible while respectfully disagreeing with their ideas. This enabled him to incorporate much of his political agenda into American life.

This worries me because Trump is such an obvious asshole. I think a lot of his own supporters think he is an asshole. They support him any way because they agree with his politics. Nearly half the country for the last three elections has voted for him despite him being an asshole, an idiot, a misogynist pig, a racist, and a corrupt detestable human being.

Where would he, and more importantly, the country be if he was slightly less obnoxious? My fear is he would have even more support than he presently does which should put the fear of God into the Democratic Party, but doesn’t. I have been supporting the most left leaning candidate my whole life (voting since 1976) and have met with disappointment almost every single time. These candidates somehow fail to catch fire beyond the left leaning communities they come from and the Democratic nominee (see Carter and Clinton here) is generally more conservative than I prefer. Obama is the only successful exception that I can recall and keep in mind his best result in a general election was 52% of the vote.

So when leaders on the left try to say Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez are the answer, I seriously have my doubts. Don’t get me wrong, I would like them to be the answer, I just don’t think it will happen. If an obnoxious asshole like Trump can win elections, imagine how a less obnoxious asshole can do.